"GEO. W. STIEFF, Southern Representative of the Charles M. Stieff Piano of Baltimore, Md., Houston office, 612 Main Street. The above named enterprise was established in this city about two years ago. The headquarters of the business and the factory are located at Baltimore, Maryland. The Houston branch has been instituted for the sale and distribution of the products throughout Southern territory, and an additional branch is being established at Fort Worth. Mr. Geo. W. Stieff, in whose hands is the management of the Southern business, is a member of the firm who are manufacturing these improved and desirable musical instruments, and he is personally an expert in the business. He has adopted this city as his home in view of its mild and equable climate, at the same time that he devotes here his full time and energies to his business. The estab-lishment where the Stieff pianos are made adopted at the outset, as a cardinal principle, that it would employ none but the best, whether of raw material or skill to mould it into a handsome and harmonious whole. At Baltimore this fact is appar-ent, and is evidenced in the use of the best and latest improved appliances and apparatus, together with the highest skilled labor procurable in the United States. The results are pianos which embody all perfection of tone, action, touch, construction, workmanship and excellence. All of the best and most desirable [sic] features of piano construction are noticeable in these instruments, as well as others of signal merit and utility peculiar to them alone. Testimonials have been received from all parts of the country forcibly pronouncing on the excellence of the goods. The Stieff received the highest honors at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, the highest honors at the Paris Exposition, and two gold medals at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exhibition at New Orleans, in 1884-5. To cap the climax at the great Columbian Exposition at Chicago, they received a Medal of Merit and Diploma of Honor, which thus for the fourth time emphasized their pronounced superiority and value. About three hundred instruments have already been sold from this office. Mr. G. W. Stieff may be accorded much credit for this gratifying success, and as before hinted, he is a proficient both in the theory and practice of piano manufacture. He is thus able to demonstrate to the public the really superior character of these instruments. The firm sell both to the trade and the public, and four commercial travellers are kept continually on the road. Mr. Geo. W. Stieff may be addressed both at the Houston and Fort Worth establishment."
Source
Isaacs, I. J., Ed. The Industrial Advantages of Houston, Texas, and Environs, Also a Series of Comprehensive Sketches of the City's Representative Business Enterprises. (Houston: Akehurst Publishing Co., 1894 ; Electronic version: Internet Archive, 2012), 85.
Original Publisher
Akehurst Publishing Co.
Date Original
1894
Date Digital
2012
Language
eng
Type
text
Artisan or Artist
Stieff, Geo. W.
Name Variations
Stieff, George W. ; Charles M. Stieff Piano.
Subject LC
Piano makers
Subject MESDA
Musical Instrument Maker
Occupation
Musical Instrument Makers
Coverage Place
Houston (Harris County, Tex.)
Coverage Date
1894
Resource Set
The Industrial Advantages of Houston, Texas.
Rights
For more information, contact texasartisans@mfah.org